Phillip Erb Poems

A gutter runs down the brick outside the front door
I live in the room on the other side and count footsteps in the rain
I draw the blinds,
drape out the light,
...

Like a king about to address his people,
I look down at the world from my balcony
as she stares back boldfaced at me.
A blue lawn chair throne is my royal seat,
...

On my knees praying
'Please, God, release me! '
The moonless ocean of the void
Seems as if longing to speak
...

Seventy-two hours
I've been chewing my teeth
Plugging my face with the demon
I’ve been stabbing fingers
...

My watch is broken, all the electricity is gone,
The batteries that powered the obligatory skeletons
Of technology are dead – neglected to the shadows,
Buried beneath the dust of a graveyard underneath
...

I began this song at four a.m. in an attempt to make friends
With an empty room, and lettered keys instead of my pen,
You know it’s hard as ever opening myself to someone new
Most time I just leave the room like there’s something to do
...

One moment mister, pardon me if I’m
Right in your way, in your place, wasting time.
I cannot afford to pay you mind, and I am so tired,
It’s certainly possible I might go blind if I don’t set aside
...

Gravel veins link the quiet arteries of a ghost town,
From my roost, two or three scattered denizens
Wear faces bewildered - if not altogether lost -
Around in circles a young girl promenades;
...

You can not really tell if his eyes are peering
Beneath a pair of lightly stoned-sleepy lids
If you’re looking for him in or around
Where you are looking now, I’ll be asleep,
...

A short, black skirt with blonde hair walks a mutt,
laughs aloud into a tiny telephone at this time everyday.
I wrote her an invitation - even though I don’t even know
Her first name, how she spells it, what she takes in her coffee,
...